I want to build a sports car.
I’ve been thinking about this for rather a long time.
I want something beautiful enough that I turn around and look at it after I’ve parked it. Something I can understand, maintain and repair myself. Something comfortable enough to get in on Friday afternoon and drive a few hundred miles for the weekend.
But I also want to be able to drive it to a hillclimb on Sunday morning, compete in it, and drive it home again.
A proper GT you can use all week and race at the weekend.
I don’t think I’m alone in wanting one.
So, rather than just build one for myself, I’d like to see whether we can put it into production.
The proposal
GT-100 starts with a purpose-designed chassis comprising a central tub and front and rear subframes to accommodate modern running gear beneath a body inspired by the great sports cars of the 1950s.
It isn’t intended to recreate a 70-year-old car.
The idea is to retain the beauty, simplicity and character of those cars while taking advantage of another 70 years of engineering.
Independent suspension. Modern brakes. Modern engines and transmissions. Components that can be bought, serviced and replaced without having to find something from a car that disappeared from scrapyards twenty years ago.
For much of that hardware I intend to raid the Jaguar parts bin.
[Why Jaguar? →]
But here’s the part I find particularly interesting.
I think the same basic car can be built in two very different ways.
We can make extensive use of production Jaguar components and build a GT-100 that someone could realistically complete for around £20,000.
Or we can start replacing those production components with lighter, adjustable, more exotic alternatives and see just how good the same car can become when built on exactly the same central tub.
I can quite easily imagine spending £100,000 doing that.
And almost every price point between the two should be possible.
[See the two rolling chassis →] Link to come.
It doesn’t have to look like this.
The first GT-100 will.
I’ve loved this shape for more than thirty years and it is the reason this project exists.
But once you’ve built a good chassis, there’s no particular reason it should only ever wear one body.
I’d like to make the rolling chassis available to other designers and manufacturers too.
If you have an idea for a beautiful sports car but don’t want to develop everything underneath it, I’d genuinely like to hear from you.
This is where we are.
There isn’t a factory full of GT-100s.
There isn’t even a prototype yet.
There are drawings, calculations, components, ideas and a great deal of engineering still to do.
I expect this to take a couple of years.
And rather than disappear into a workshop and come back when it’s finished, I’d like to develop it in public.
Some decisions will change. Some ideas won’t work. Better ones will replace them.
That’s part of building a car.
I’ve set out the engineering brief as it stands today, along with rather more detail about the car I’m proposing.
Have a look.
And then I’d really like to know what you think.
If you’d consider building one, tell me.
If you could contribute to it, tell me.
And if you think I’ve got something wrong, tell me that too.
This is a proposal, not a product launch.
I’d like to know whether you think it’s worth building.
Stephen Spencer
August 2026
[Read the engineering brief →]
[Join the conversation →]